From the archive, 30 June 1972: The release of psychopaths

Should he have been shut away for life even if he was aged only 14? Convicted of poisoning his father, sister, and schoolfriend in 1962, Graham Young placed the court in a dilemma. A consultant psychiatrist and a senior medical officer both warned the court that he was "extremely likely" to poison other people if he was given the opportunity. A third psychiatrist found him far too dangerous to be placed in a psychiatric hospital like the Maudsley. He was sent to Broadmoor for a sentence of 15 years, but served only nine and was released last year with the permission of the Home Secretary. Within weeks the dreadful forecast of 1962 proved true. Two men were murdered and three others poisoned before Young's activities were exposed. Where did the system break down? It could have been worse – suppose he had worked at a food factory and concentrated on the products rather than his workmates.

The Home Secretary released Young on Broadmoor's recommendation. Young's subsequent employer knew he had been in a mental hospital but did not know it was for poisoning. There was enough poison in Young's room at his lodgings "to keep Boots in business for a month," but the probation officer never went there. There were serious gaps in communication at every point.

In future no patient will be discharged from special hospitals like Broadmoor until the patient's hospital doctor has obtained a second opinion from a consultant psychiatrist. Probation officers are to be given more discretion in disclosing a patient's background to an employer. Yet a distinction must be drawn between a person with a criminal record and a person with a record of serious psychopathic disorder. If the employer had been aware of Young's background or the probation officer had visited Young at his home and seen the poison, a tragedy could have been averted. Our after-care prison service remains a disgrace. Probation officers are over-worked. It is hoped that the Government will now speed up its expansion plans for the probation service.

The only infallible way to avoid a recurrence of the mistake would be never to release any patient committed to Broadmoor. The risk with releasing patients on licence is that it takes only one wrong decision to undermine the whole system. As the Home Secretary pointed out in the House yesterday, over 300 people have been released from Broadmoor in the past 12 years, and yet there has been only one other homicide committed by a patient on licence. If the licence system is ended, several hundred patients will have to remain in the over-crowded prison hospital.